The Abbess of Castro, by Stendhal

VI

On the morning after the fight, the nuns of the Visitation were horrified to find nine dead bodies in their garden
and in the passage that led from their outer gate to the gate with the iron bars; eight of their bravi were
wounded. Never had there been such a panic in the convent: it was true that they had, now and again, heard arquebus
shots fired in the square, but never such a quantity of shots fired in the garden, in the middle of the nuns’ buildings
and beneath their windows. The affair had lasted fully an hour and a half, and during that time the disorder had been
complete inside the convent. Had Giulio Branciforte had the least understanding with any of the sisters or boarders, he
must have been successful: all that was needed was to open to him one of the many doors that led into the garden; but,
wild with indignation and with resentment of what he called the perjury of young Elena, Giulio had sought to carry
everything before him by main force. He would have felt that he was failing in his duty to himself, had he confided his
plan to anyone who could repeat it to Elena. And yet a single word to her little Marietta would have sufficed to assure
his success: she would have opened one of the doors leading into the garden, and one man even appearing in the
dormitories of the convent, with that terrible accompaniment of arquebus shots heard from without, would have been
obeyed to the letter. At the sound of the first shot, Elena had trembled for the life of her lover, and her one thought
had been to fly with him.

How are we to depict her despair when little Marietta told her of the fearful wound Giulio had received in his knee,
from which she had seen the blood flowing in torrents? Elena detested her own cowardice and pusillanimity:

“I was weak enough to say a word to my mother, and Giulio’s blood has been shed; he might have lost his life in that
sublime assault in which it was his courage that did everything.”

The bravi, when admitted to the parlour, had said to the nuns, who were all agog to hear them, that never
in their lives had they witnessed valour comparable to that of the young man dressed as a courier who directed the
efforts of the brigands. If all the rest listened to these tales with the keenest interest, one may judge of the
intense passion with which Elena asked these bravi for a detailed account of the young chief of the brigands.
After the long stories which she made them, and also the old gardeners, tell her, she felt that she no longer loved her
mother at all. There was indeed a moment of extremely heated discussion between these two women who had loved each
other so tenderly on the eve of the fight; Signora de’ Campireali was shocked by the bloodstains which she saw on the
flowers of a certain nosegay from which Elena refused to be parted for a single instant.

“You ought to throw away those flowers covered with blood.”

“It was I who caused that noble blood to be spilt, and it flowed because I was weak enough to say a word to
you.”

After this reply, not a single word passed between Signora de’ Campireali and her daughter during the three more
days which the Signora spent in the convent.

On the day following her departure, Elena managed to escape, taking advantage of the confusion that prevailed at the
two gates of the convent, owing to the presence of a large number of masons who had been let into the garden and were
engaged in erecting new fortifications there. Little Marietta and she were disguised as workmen. But the townsfolk were
keeping a strict guard at the gates of the town. Elena had considerable difficulty in getting out. Finally, the same
small merchant who had conveyed Branciforte’s letters to her consented to let her pass as his daughter, and to escort
her as far as Albano. There Elena found a hiding-place with her nurse, whom her generosity had enabled to open a little
shop. No sooner had she arrived, than she wrote to Branciforte, and the nurse found, not without great trouble, a man
willing to risk his life by entering the forest of la Faggiola without having the password of Colonna’s troops.

The messenger dispatched by Elena returned after three days, in great consternation; for one tiling, he had been
unable to find Branciforte, and, as the questions which he continued to put with regard to the young captain had ended
by making him suspected, he had been obliged to take flight.

“There can be no doubt about it, poor Giulio is dead,” Elena said to herself, “and it is I that have killed him!
Such was bound to be the consequence of my wretched weakness and cowardice; he should have loved a strong woman, the
daughter of one of Prince Colonna’s captains.”

The nurse thought that Elena was going to die. She went up to the Capuchin convent, standing by the road cut in the
rock, where Fabio and his father had once met the lovers in the middle of the night. The nurse spoke at great length to
her confessor, and, beneath the seal of the sacrament, admitted to him that young Elena de’ Campireali wished to go and
join Giulio Branciforte, her husband, adding that she was prepared to place in the church of the convent a silver lamp
of the value of one hundred Spanish piastres.

“A hundred piastres!” replied the friar angrily. “And what will become of our convent, if we incur the anger of
Signor de’ Campireali? It was not a hundred piastres, but a good thousand, that he gave us for going to fetch his son’s
body from the battlefield at the Ciampi, not to speak of the wax.”

It must be said to the honour of the convent that two elderly friars, having discovered where precisely Elena was,
went down to Albano and paid her a visit, originally with the intention of inducing her by hook or crook to take up her
abode in the palazzo of her family: they knew that they would be richly rewarded by Signora de’ Campireali. The whole
of Albano was ringing with the report of Elena’s flight and of the lavish promises made by her mother to anyone who
could give her news of her daughter. But the two friars were so touched by the despair of poor Elena, who believed
Giulio Branciforte to be dead, that, so far from betraying her by revealing to her mother the place in which she had
taken refuge, they agreed to serve as her escort as far as the fortress of la Petrella. Elena and Marietta, once more
disguised as workmen, repaired on foot and by night to a certain spring in the forest of la Faggiola, a league from
Albano. The friars had sent mules there to meet them, and, when day had come, the party set out for la Petrella. The
friars, who were known to be under the Prince’s protection, were greeted everywhere with respect by the soldiers whom
they met in the forest; but it was not so with the two little men who accompanied them: the soldiers began by staring
at them in the most forbidding manner and came up to them, then burst out laughing and congratulated the friars on the
charms of their muleteers.

“Silence, impious wretches; know that all is being done under Prince Colonna’s orders,” replied the friars as they
proceeded on their way.

But poor Elena was unlucky; the Prince was not at la Petrella, and when, three days later, on his return, he at
length granted her an audience, he showed himself most stern.

“Why do you come here, Signorina? What means this ill-advised action? Your woman’s chatter has cost the lives of
seven of the bravest men in Italy, and that is a thing which no man in his senses will ever forgive you. In this world,
one must wish a thing or not wish it. It is doubtless in consequence of similar chatter that Giulio Branci-forte has
just been declared guilty of sacrilege, and sentenced to be tortured for two hours with red-hot pincers, and then
burned as a Jew, he, one of the best Christians I know! How could anyone, without some abominable chattering on your
part, have invented so horrible a lie as to say that Giulio Branciforte was at Castro on the day of the attack on the
convent? All my men will tell you that they saw him that day here at la Petrella, and that in the evening I sent him to
Velletri.

“But is he alive?” Elena cried for the tenth time, bursting into tears.

“He is dead to you,” replied the Prince. “You shall never set eyes on him again. I advise you to return to your
convent at Castro; try to commit no more indiscretions, and I order you to leave la Petrella within an hour from now.
Above all, never mention to anyone that you have seen me, or I shall find a way of punishing you.”

Poor Elena was broken-hearted at meeting with such a reception from that famous Prince Colonna, for whom Giulio felt
so much respect, and whom she loved because Giulio loved him.

Whatever Prince Colonna might choose to say, this action on Elena’s part was by no means ill-advised. If she had
come to la Petrella three days earlier, she would have found there Giulio Branciforte; the wound in his knee rendered
him incapable of marching, and the Prince had him carried to the market town of Avezzano, in the Kingdom of Naples. At
the first news of the terrible sentence upon Giulio Branciforte which, purchased by Signor de’ Campireali, denounced
him as guilty of sacrilege and of violating a convent, the Prince had seen that, should he have occasion to protect
Branciforte, he would have to reckon without three-fourths of his men. This was a sin against the Madonna, to whose
protection each of these brigands supposed himself to have a special claim. Had there been a bargello in Rome
sufficiently daring to come and arrest Giulio Branciforte in the heart of the forest of la Faggiola, he might have been
successful.

On reaching Avezzano, Giulio took the name of Fontana, and the men who carried him there were discreet. On their
return to la Petrella, they announced with sorrow that Giulio had died on the way, and from that moment each of the
Prince’s soldiers knew that a dagger would find its way to the heart of any who should pronounce that fatal name.

It was in vain therefore that Elena, on her return to Albano, wrote letter after letter, and spent, on their
transmission to Branciforte, all the sequins that she possessed. The two aged friars, who had become her friends, for
extreme beauty, says the Florentine chronicler, cannot fail to exercise some sway, even over hearts hardened by the
vilest selfishness and hypocrisy; the two friars, we say, warned the poor girl that it was in vain that she might seek
to convey a word to Branciforte: Colonna had declared that he was dead, and certainly Giulio would not appear in public
again unless the Prince chose. Elena’s nurse informed her, with tears, that her mother had at length succeeded in
discovering her retreat, and that the strictest orders had been given that she should be forcibly taken to the palazzo
Campireali, in Albano. Elena realised that, once inside that palazzo, her imprisonment might be one of unbounded
severity, and that they would succeed in cutting her off absolutely from any communication with the outer world,
whereas at the Convent of Castro she would have, for receiving and sending letters, the same facilities as all the
other nuns. Besides, and this was what brought her to a decision, it was in the garden of that convent that Giulio had
shed his blood for her: she could gaze once more upon that wooden armchair in the portress’s lodge on which he had sat
for a moment to examine the wound in his knee; it was there that he had given Marietta that nosegay stained with blood
which never left her person. And so she went sadly back to the Convent of Castro, and here one might bring her history
to an end: it would be well for her, and for the reader also. For. we are now about to observe the gradual degradation
of a noble and generous nature.

Prudent measures and the falsehoods of civilisation, which for the future are going to assail her on every side,
will take the place of the sincere impulses of vigorous and natural passions. The Roman chronicler here sets down a
most artless reflexion: because a woman has taken the trouble to bring into the world a beautiful daughter, she assumes
that she has the talent necessary to direct that daughter’s life, and because, when the daughter is six years old, she
said to her and was justified in saying: “Miss, put your collar straight,” when the daughter is eighteen and she
herself fifty, when the daughter has as much intelligence as her mother and more, the mother, carried away by the mania
for ruling, thinks that she has the right to direct her daughter’s life and even to employ falsehood. We shall see that
it was Vittoria Carafa, Elena’s mother, who, by a succession of adroit measures, most skilfully planned, brought about
the death of that dearly loved daughter, after keeping her in misery for twelve years, a lamentable result of the mania
for ruling.

Before his death, Signor de’ Campireali had had the joy of seeing published in Rome the sentence that condemned
Giulio Branciforte to be tortured for two hours with red-hot irons in the principal squares of Rome, then to be burned
on a slow fire, and his ashes flung into the Tiber. The frescoes in the cloisters of Santa Maria Novella, at Florence,
still survive to show us how these cruel sentences upon the sacrilegious were carried out. As a rule, a numerous guard
was required to prevent the outraged populace from forestalling the headsmen in their office. Everyone regarded himself
as an intimate friend of the Madonna. Signor de’ Campireali had had the sentence read over to him again a few moments
before his death, and had given the avvocato who had procured it his fine estate lying between Albano and the
sea. This avvocato was by no means devoid of merit. Branciforte was condemned to this terrible punishment, and
yet no witness had professed to have recognised him beneath the clothing of that young man disguised as a courier, who
seemed to be directing with such authority the movements of the assailants. The magnificence of the reward set all the
intriguers of Rome in a stir. There was then at court a certain fratone (monk), a deep man and one capable of
anything, even of forcing the Pope to give him the Hat; he looked after the affairs of Prince Colonna, and that
terrible client earned him great consideration. When Signora de’ Campireali saw her daughter once more safely at
Castro, she sent for this fratone.

“Your Reverence will be lavishly rewarded, if he will be so kind as to help to bring to a successful issue the very
simple affair which I am going to explain to him. In a few days’ time, the sentence condemning Giulio Branciforte to a
terrible punishment is to be published and made effective in the Kingdom of Naples also. I request Your Reverence to
read this letter from the Viceroy, a relative of mine, by the way, who deigns to inform me of this news. In what land
can Branciforte seek an asylum? I shall have fifty thousand piastres conveyed to the Prince, with the request that he
will give the whole sum, or a part of it, to Giulio Branciforte, on condition that he goes to serve the King of Spain,
my Sovereign, against the rebels in Flanders. The Viceroy will give a brevet as captain to Branciforte, and in order
that the sentence for sacrilege, which I hope to have made operative in Spain also, may not hamper him at all in his
career, he will go by the name of Barone Lizzara; that is a small property which I have in the Abruzzi, and shall find
a way of making over to him, by means of fictitious sales. I do not suppose Your Reverence has ever seen a mother treat
her son’s murderer like this. For five hundred piastres we could long since have been rid of the hateful creature; but
we had no wish to fall foul of Colonna. Be so good, therefore, as to point out to him that my respect for his rights is
costing me sixty or eighty thousand piastres. I never wish to hear that Branciforte mentioned again; that is all, and
you will present my compliments to the Prince.”

The fratone said that in two or three days he would be going in the direction of Ostia, and Signora de’
Campireali handed him a ring worth a thousand piastres.

A few days later, the fratone reappeared in Rome, and told Signora de’ Campireali that he had not informed
the Prince of her plan, but that within a month young Branciforte would have taken ship for Barcelona, where she would
be able to convey to him, through one of the bankers of that city, the sum of fifty thousand piastres.

The Prince found considerable difficulty in handling Giulio. Whatever the risk he must for the future run in Italy,
the young lover could not make up his mind to leave that country. In vain did the Prince suggest to him that Signora
de’ Campireali might die; in vain did he promise that, in any event, after three years, Giulio might return to visit
his native land; Giulio shed copious tears, but consent he would not. The Prince was obliged to request him to go, as a
personal service to himself; Giulio could refuse nothing to his father’s friend; but, first and foremost, he wished to
take his orders from Elena. The Prince deigned to take charge of a long letter; and, what was more, gave Giulio
permission to write to her from Flanders once every month. At length the despairing lover embarked for Barcelona. All
his letters were burned by the Prince, who did not wish Giulio ever to return to Italy. We have forgotten to mention
that, although anything like ostentation was utterly alien to his character, the Prince had felt himself obliged to
say, in order to bring matters to a successful issue, that it was he himself who thought fit to assure a small fortune
of fifty thousand piastres to the only son of one of the most faithful servants of the house of Colonna. Poor Elena was
treated like a Princess in the Convent of Castro. Her father’s death had put her in possession of a considerable
fortune, and a vast inheritance would accrue to her in time. On the occasion of her father’s death she made a gift of
five ells of black cloth to all such of the inhabitants of Castro or of the district who announced that they wished to
wear mourning for Signor de’ Campireali. She was still in the first days of her bereavement when, by the hand of a
complete stranger, a letter was brought to her from Giulio. It would be hard to describe the rapture with which that
letter was opened, though no less hard to describe the intense grief which followed her perusal of it. And yet it was
indeed in Giulio’s handwriting; she examined it with the closest scrutiny. The letter spoke of love; but what love,
great heavens! Nevertheless, it was Signora de’ Campireali, who was so clever, that had composed it. Her intention was
to begin the correspondence with seven or eight letters of impassioned love; she wished thus to prepare the way for the
next letters, in which the writer’s passion would seem to die gradually away.

We may pass briefly over ten years of an unhappy life. Elena supposed herself to be completely forgotten, and yet
had scornfully refused the overtures of the most distinguished young noblemen in Rome. She did, however, hesitate for a
moment, when mention was made to her of young Ottavio Colonna, the eldest son of the famous Fabrizio, who had received
her so coldly, long ago, at la Petrella. She felt that, being absolutely obliged to take a husband in order to provide
a protector for the lands which she owned in the Roman States and in the Kingdom of Naples, it would be less repulsive
to her to bear the name of a man whom Giulio had once loved. Had she agreed to this marriage, Elena would very soon
have found out the truth about Giulio Branciforte. The old Prince Fabrizio spoke often and with enthusiasm of the
superhuman valour shown by Colonel Lizzara (Giulio Branciforte), who, just like the heroes of the old romances, was
seeking to distract his mind by gallant actions from the unfortunate love affair which made him indifferent to all
pleasures. He imagined Elena to be long since married; Signora de’ Campireali had surrounded him, too, with
falsehood.

Elena was half reconciled to that wiliest of mothers. She. passionately anxious to see her daughter married, asked
her friend, old Cardinal Santi–Quattro, Protector of the Visitation, who was going to Castro, to announce in confidence
to the senior sisters in the convent that his visit to them had been delayed by an act of grace. The good Pope Gregory
XIII, moved to pity for the soul of a brigand named Giulio Branciforte, who had once tried to break into their
cloister, had been pleased, on learning of his death, to revoke the sentence that declared him guilty of sacrilege,
being fully convinced that, beneath the load of such a condemnation, he would never be able to escape from Purgatory,
assuming that Branciforte, taken by surprise in Mexico and massacred by rebellious natives, had been so fortunate as to
go no farther than Purgatory. This news put the whole Convent of Castro in a stir; it reached the ears of Elena, who at
once began to indulge in all the foolish acts of vanity that the possession of a great fortune can inspire in a person
who is profoundly vexed. From that moment, she never left her room. It should be explained that, in order to be able to
install herself in the little portress’s lodge in which Giulio had taken refuge for a moment on the night of the
assault, she had had half the convent rebuilt. With infinite pains and, in the sequel, a scandal which it was extremely
difficult to hush up, she had succeeded in laying hands on, and in taking into her service the three bravi
employed by Branciforte who still survived out of the five that had got away from the fight at Castro. Among these was
Ugone, now old and crippled by wounds. The arrival of these three men had caused considerable murmuring; but in the end
the fear that Elena’s proud nature inspired in the whole convent had prevailed, and every day they were to be seen,
dressed in her livery, coming to take her orders at the outer grill, and often giving long answers to her questions,
which were always on the same subject.

After the six months of seclusion and detachment from all the things of this world which followed the announcement
of Giulio’s death, the first sensation to awaken this heart already broken by a misfortune without remedy and a long
period of boredom was one of vanity.

A little time since, the Abbess had died. According to custom, Cardinal Santi–Quattro, who was still Protector of
the Visitation, despite his great age of ninety-two years, had drawn up the list of the three ladies from among whom
the Pope would select an Abbess. It required some very serious reason to make His Holiness read the last two names on
the list; as a rule he contented himself with running his pen through those names, and the nomination was made.

One day, Elena was at the window of what had been the portress’s lodge, and had now become one end of the wing of
new buildings erected by her. This window stood not more than two feet above the passage once watered by the blood of
Giulio and now forming part of the garden. Elena’s eyes were firmly fixed on the ground. The three ladies whose names,
as had been known for some days, formed the Cardinal’s list of possible successors to the late Abbess, came past
Elena’s window. She did not see them, and in consequence could not greet them. One of the three ladies was offended,
and remarked in a loud voice to the other two:

“A fine thing for a boarder to flaunt her room before everybody.”

Aroused by these words, Elena raised her eyes and encountered three hostile stares.

“Very well,” she said to herself as she shut the window without greeting them, “I’ve played the lamb in this convent
quite long enough; it’s time I became a wolf, if only to give a little variety to the curious gentlemen of the
town.”

An hour later, one of her servants, dispatched as a courier, carried the following letter to her mother, who for the
last ten years had been living in Rome, and had managed to acquire great influence there.

“Most respected Mother,

“Every year you give me three hundred thousand francs upon my birthday; I make use of that money to do foolish
things, perfectly honourable things I must say, but foolish nevertheless. Although it is long since you have mentioned
the matter, I know that there are two ways in which I can shew my gratitude for all the thoughtful care you have taken
of me. I will never marry, but I would gladly become Abbess of this Convent; what has given me the idea is
that the three ladies whose names our Cardinal Santi–Quattro has placed on the list which he will present to His
Holiness are my enemies, and, whichever of them be chosen, I may expect every sort of annoyance. Offer the usual
flowers on my birthday to all the right people; let us first have the nomination postponed for six months — which will
make the Prioress of the Convent, my dearest friend, who is now holding the reins, wild with joy. That alone will
afford me some happiness, and it is very seldom that I can use that word in speaking of your daughter. I think my idea
absurd; but if you see any chance of success, in three days I will take the white veil, eight years of residence in the
convent, without a night’s absence, entitling me to six months’ exemption. The dispensation is never refused, and costs
forty scudi.

“I am with respect, my venerable mother,” etc.

On reading this letter, Signora de’ Campireali’s joy knew no bounds. When it reached her, she was bitterly
regretting that she had sent word to her daughter of Branciforte’s death; she foresaw some mad action, she was even
afraid lest her daughter might decide to go to Mexico to visit the spot where Branciforte was said to have been
massacred, in which case it was highly probable that she would learn in Madrid the true name of Colonel Lizzara. On the
other hand, what her daughter demanded in the letter was the most difficult, one might even say the most preposterous
thing in the world. That a young girl who was not even in religion, and was known only for a mad love affair with a
brigand, should be set at the head of a convent in which all the Roman Princes had relatives professed! “But,” thought
Signora de’ Campireali, “they say that every cause can be pleaded, and, if so, won.” In her reply, Vittoria Carafa gave
her daughter grounds for hope; that daughter, as a rule, wished only for the most absurd things, but, on the other
hand, she very soon tired of them. In the evening, while seeking any information that, nearly or remotely, bore upon
the Convent of Castro, she learned that for some months past her friend Cardinal Santi–Quattro had been extremely
cross: he wished to marry his niece to Don Ottavio Colonna, the eldest son of that Prince Fabrizio, who has been so
often mentioned in the course of this narrative. The Prince offered him his second son, Don Lorenzo, because, in order
to bolster up his own fortune, fantastically compromised by the war which the King of Naples and the Pope, reconciled
at last, were waging against the brigands of la Faggiola, it was essential that his eldest son’s wife should bring a
dowry of six hundred thousand piastres (3,210,000 francs) to the House of Colonna. Now Cardinal Santi–Quattro, even by
disinheriting in the most preposterous fashion all the rest of his family, could only offer a fortune of three hundred
and eighty or four hundred thousand piastres.

Vittoria Carafa spent the evening and part of the night in having these reports confirmed by all the friends of old
Santi–Quattro. Next day, about seven o’clock, she sent in her name to the old Cardinal.

“Your Eminence,” she said to him, “we are neither of us young; it is useless our trying to deceive one another by
giving fine names to things that are not fine; I have come to propose to you something mad; all that I can say in
defence of it is that it is not abominable; but I must admit that I find it supremely ridiculous. When there was some
talk of a marriage between Don Ottavio Colonna and my daughter Elena, I formed an affection for the young man, and, on
the day of his marriage, I will hand over to you two hundred thousand piastres in land or in money, which I shall ask
you to convey to him. But, in order to enable a poor widow like myself to make so enormous a sacrifice, I require that
my daughter Elena, who is at present twenty-seven years old, and since the age of nineteen has never spent a night out
of the convent, be made Abbess of Castro; but first of all the election must be postponed for six months; it
is all quite canonical.”

“What are you saying, Signora?” cried the old Cardinal in horror; “His Holiness himself could not perform what you
come here and ask of a poor, helpless old man.”

“Did I not tell Your Eminence that the thing was absurd: fools will call it madness; but the people that are well
informed of what goes on at court will say that our Excellent Prince, good Pope Gregory XIII, has chosen to reward Your
Eminence’s long and loyal services by facilitating a marriage which the whole of Rome knows Your Eminence to desire.
Besides, it is perfectly possible, quite canonical, I will vouch for it; my daughter is going to take the white veil
tomorrow.”

“But the simony, Signora!” cried the old man in a terrible voice.

Signora de’ Campireali prepared to go.

“What is that paper you are leaving behind you?”

“It is the list of the estates which I should present as the equivalent of two hundred thousand piastres, should
that be preferred to ready money; the change of proprietor could be kept secret for a very long time: for instance, the
House of Colonna might bring actions against me which I should proceed to lose. . . . ”

“But the simony, Signora, the fearful simony!”

“The first thing to be done is to put off the election for six months; tomorrow I shall call to receive Your
Eminence’s orders.”

I feel that there is need of an explanation, for readers born north of the Alps, of the almost official tone of
several passages in this dialogue: let me remind them that, in strictly Catholic countries, the majority of discussions
of unpleasant subjects end in the confessional; and then it is anything but a trivial matter whether one has made use
of a respectful or of an ironical expression.

In the course of the following day, Vittoria Carafa learned that, owing to a grave error in point of fact which had
been discovered in the list of three ladies submitted to fill the vacant post of Abbess of Castro, that election was
postponed for six months: the second lady upon the list had a renegade in her family; one of her great-uncles had
turned Protestant at Udine.

Signora de’ Campireali felt herself impelled to approach Prince Fabrizio Colonna, to whose House she was about to
offer so notable an increase in its patrimony. After trying for two days, she succeeded in obtaining an appointment in
a village near Rome, but she came away quite alarmed by her audience; she had found the Prince, ordinarily so calm, so
greatly taken up with the military glory of Colonel Lizzara (Giulio Branciforte), that she had decided it to be
completely useless to ask him to keep silent on that head. The Colonel was to him like a son, and, what was more, a
favourite pupil. The Prince spent his time reading and re-reading certain letters that came to him from Flanders. What
would become of the cherished plan to which Signora de’ Campireali had sacrificed so much in the last ten years, were
her daughter to learn of the existence and fame of Colonel Lizzara?

I must pass over in silence a number of circumstances which do, indeed, portray the manners of that age but seem to
me wearisome to relate. The author of the Roman manuscript has taken endless pains to arrive at the exact date of these
details which I suppress.

Two years after Signora de’ Campireali’s meeting with Prince Colonna, Elena was Abbess of Castro; but the old
Cardinal Santi–Quattro had died of grief after this great act of simony. At that time Castro had as Bishop the
handsomest man at the Papal Court, Monsignor Francesco Cittadini, a noble of the city of Milan. This young man,
remarkable for his modest graces and his tone of dignity, had frequent dealings with the Abbess of the Visitation,
especially with regard to the new cloister with which she proposed to adorn her convent. This young Bishop Cittadini,
then twenty-nine years old, fell madly in love with the beautiful Abbess. In the legal proceedings which followed, a
year later, a number of nuns, whose evidence was taken, report that the Bishop made his visits to the Convent as
frequent as possible, and often said to their Abbess: “Elsewhere I command, and, I am ashamed to say, find some
pleasure in doing so; in your presence, I obey like a slave, but with a pleasure that far surpasses that of commanding
elsewhere. I find myself under the influence of a superior being; were I to try, I could have no other will than hers,
and I would rather see myself, to all eternity, the last of her slaves than reign as king out of her sight.”

The witnesses relate that often, in the middle of these elegant speeches, the Abbess would order him to be silent,
and in harsh language which implied scorn.

“To tell the truth,” another witness goes on, “the Signora used to treat him like a servant; when that happened the
poor Bishop would lower his eyes, and begin to weep, but he never went away. He found a fresh excuse every day for
coming to the Convent, which greatly scandalised the nuns’ confessors and the enemies of the Abbess. But the Lady
Abbess was strongly defended by the Prioress, her dearest friend, who carried on the internal government under her
immediate orders.

“You know, my noble sisters (she used to say), that ever since that thwarted passion which our Abbess felt in her
earliest girlhood for a soldier of fortune, her ideas have always been very odd; but you all know that there is this
remarkable element in her character, that she never changes her mind about people for whom she has shown her contempt.
Well, never, in the whole of her life, probably, has she said so many insulting words as she has uttered in our
presence to poor Monsignor Cittadini. Every day, we see him submit to treatment which makes us blush for his high
office.”

“Yes,” replied the scandalised sisters, “but he comes again the day after; so, after all, he cannot be so ill
treated, and, however that may be, this suggestion of intrigue is damaging to the reputation of the Holy Order of the
Visitation.”

The sternest master would never address to the clumsiest servant one quarter of the abuse which, day after day, the
proud Abbess heaped upon this young Bishop whose manners were so unctuous; but he was in love, and had brought from his
own country the fundamental maxim that once an undertaking of this sort has been begun, one has to think only about the
end and not to consider the means.

“After all,” said the Bishop to his confidant, Cesare del Bene, “the true scorn is that felt for the lover who has
desisted from the attack before being compelled to do so by superior forces.”

Now my sad task will be confined to giving an extract, of necessity extremely dry, from the criminal proceedings
which led to Elena’s death. These proceedings, which I have read in a library the name of which I am obliged to keep
private, occupy no fewer than eight folio volumes. The questions and arguments are in the Latin tongue, the answers in
Italian. I find that during the month of November, 1572, about eleven o’clock at night, the young Bishop betook himself
alone to the door of the church by which the faithful are admitted throughout the day; the Abbess herself opened this
door to him, and allowed him to follow her. She received him in a room which she often occupied, one that communicated
by a secret door with the galleries built over the aisles of the church. Barely an hour elapsed before the Bishop, in
great bewilderment, was sent packing; the Abbess herself conducted him to the door of the church, and addressed him in
these very words:

“Return to your Palace, and leave my sight at once. Farewell, Monsignore; you fill me with horror; I feel that I
have given myself to a lackey.”

Three months later, however, came Carnival. The people of Castro were famous for the festivities which they held
among themselves at this season, the whole town being filled with the clamour of the masquerades. Not one of these
failed to pass beneath a little window which gave a feeble light to a certain stable in the Convent. We need not be
surprised to hear that three months before Carnival this stable had been converted into a parlour, which was never
empty during the days of masquerade. In the midst of all the popular absurdities, the Bishop came past in his coach;
the Abbess made him a signal, and, the following night, at one o’clock, he appeared without fail at the door of the
church. He entered, but, within three-quarters of an hour, was angrily dismissed. Since the first assignation, in the
month of November, he had continued to come to the Convent almost every week. A slight air of rather foolish triumph
was to be observed on his face; this everyone noticed, but it had the special effect of greatly shocking the proud
nature of the young Abbess. On Easter Monday, among other occasions, she treated him like the meanest of mankind, and
addressed to him words which the humblest workman in the Convent would not have borne. Nevertheless, a few days later,
she gave him a signal, on receiving which the handsome Bishop presented himself without fail at the door of the church;
she had sent for him to let him know that she was with child. On hearing this, says the official account, the young man
turned pale with horror and became absolutely stupid with fear. The Abbess took fever; she sent for the
doctor, and made no mystery to him about her condition. The man knew his patient’s generous nature, and promised to
help her out of the difficulty. He began by putting her in touch with a woman of humble station, young and good
looking, who, without bearing the title of midwife, had the necessary acquirements. Her husband was a baker. Elena was
taken with the conversation of this woman, who informed her that, in order to carry out the plans by which she hoped to
save her, it was necessary that she should have two other women in her confidence inside the Convent.

“A woman like yourself, well and good, but one of my equals? Never! Leave my presence.”

The midwife withdrew. But, a few hours later, Elena, feeling it not to be prudent to expose herself to the risk of
the woman’s chattering, summoned the doctor, who sent the woman back to the Convent, where she was liberally rewarded.
This woman swore that, even had she not been called back, she would never have divulged the secret that had been
confided to her; but she declared once again that, if there were not, inside the Convent, two women devoted to the
Abbess’s interests and conversant with everything, she herself could have no hand in the matter. (No doubt, she was
thinking of the possible charge of infanticide.) After prolonged reflexion, the Abbess decided to entrust this terrible
secret to Donna Vittoria, Prioress of the Convent, of the ducal family of C——— and to Donna Bernards, daughter of the
Marchese P———. She made them swear on their breviaries that they would never utter a word, even at the stool of
penitence, of what she was about to confide to them. The ladies stood frozen with terror. They admit, in their
examination, that, having in mind the proud nature of their Abbess, they expected to hear a confession of murder. The
Abbess said to them, quite simply and coolly:

“I have failed in all my duties; I am with child.”

Donna Vittoria, the Prioress, deeply moved and troubled on account of the ties of friendship which for so many years
had bound her to Elena, and not urged by any idle curiosity, exclaimed with tears in her eyes:

“And who is the bold wretch that has committed this crime?”

“I have not told even my confessor; judge whether I am likely to tell you!”

The two ladies at once began to consider the best way of keeping this fatal secret from the rest of the convent.
They decided first of all that the Abbess’s bed should be removed from her own room, at the very centre of the
building, to the Pharmacy, which had just been installed in the most remote part of the Convent, on the third floor of
the great wing erected by Elena’s generosity. It was in this spot that the Abbess gave birth to a male child. For three
weeks the baker’s wife had been concealed in the Prioress’s apartment. As this woman was hurrying swiftly along the
cloister carrying the child, it began to cry, and in her terror she took shelter in the cellar. An hour later, Donna
Bernarda, assisted by the doctor, managed to open a little gate in the garden wall; the baker’s wife hurriedly left the
Convent, and, shortly afterwards, the town. On reaching the open country, still pursued by a wild terror, she took
refuge in a little cave to which chance led her among some rocks. The Abbess wrote to Cesare del Bene, the Bishop’s
confidant and head valet, who hastened to the cave indicated; he was on horseback; he took the infant in his arms, and
set off at a gallop for Montefiascone. The child was baptised there in the Church of Saint Margaret, and received the
name of Alessandro. The landlady of the local inn had procured a nurse, on whom Cesare bestowed eight scudi: a crowd of
women, who had gathered outside the church during the ceremony of baptism, called out persistently to Signor Cesare,
demanding the name of the child’s father.

“He is a great gentleman of Rome,” Cesare told them, “who has allowed himself to make free with a poor village girl
like yourselves.”

So saying, he vanished.

All was going well so far in that immense convent, peopled with more than three hundred inquisitive women; no one
had seen anything, no one had heard anything. But the Abbess had given the doctor some handfuls of sequins newly struck
from the mint in Rome. The doctor gave several of these pieces to the baker’s wife. The woman was pretty and her
husband jealous; he searched in her box, found these pieces of gold that shone so brightly, and, supposing them to be
the price of her shame, forced her, with a knife at her throat, to tell him from whence they came. After some
equivocation, the woman confessed the truth, and peace was made. The couple then began to discuss the use to which they
should put so large a sum. The wife wished to pay various debts; but the husband thought it better to buy a mule, which
was done. This mule created a scandal among the neighbours, who knew well the poverty of the couple. All the gossips in
the town, friend and foe alike, came in turn to ask the baker’s wife who was the generous lover who had enabled her to
buy a mule. The woman, losing her temper, sometimes replied by telling the truth. One day when Cesare del Bene had been
to see the child and came to give an account of his visit to the Abbess, she, although extremely unwell, dragged
herself to the grating, and reproached him for the want of discretion shewn by the agents whom he employed. The Bishop,
meanwhile, fell ill with fear; he wrote to his brothers in Milan to inform them of the false accusation that was being
levelled against him: he appealed to them to come to his rescue. Although seriously ill, he made up his mind to leave
Castro; but, before starting, he wrote to the Abbess:

“You know already that all that happened is public property. So, if you have any interest in saving not only my
reputation, but perhaps my life, and in order to avoid a greater scandal, you might lay the blame on Gianbattista
Doleri, who died two days ago; so that if, in this way, you do not repair your own honour, mine at least shall be no
longer imperilled.”

The Bishop summoned Don Luigi, Confessor to the Monastery of Castro.

“Deliver this,” he said, “into the Lady Abbess’s own hands.”

She, upon reading this atrocious missive, cried out in the hearing of all that happened to be in the room:

“Thus the foolish virgins deserve to be treated who set the beauty of the body above that of the soul.”

The rumour of all that was occurring at Castro came rapidly to the ears of the terrible Cardinal Farnese
(he had given himself that reputation some years back, because he hoped, at the next conclave, to have the support of
the zealous Cardinals). He at once gave orders to the podestà of Castro to have Bishop Cittadini
arrested. All the Bishop’s servants, fearing the question, took flight. Cesare del Bene alone remained
faithful to his master, and swore to him that he would die in torments sooner than reveal anything that might damage
him. Cittadini, seeing himself under close guard in his own Palace, wrote again to his brothers, who arrived in haste
from Milan. They found him detained in the Ronciglione prison.

I see from the Abbess’s first examination that, while admitting her crime, she denied having had relations with the
Bishop; her paramour had been Gianbattista Doleri, lawyer to the Convent.

On the 9th of September, 1575, Gregory XIII ordered that the trial should proceed with all haste and with the utmost
rigour. A criminal judge, a fiscal and a commissary betook themselves to Castro and Ronciglione. Cesare del Bene, the
Bishop’s head valet, admitted only that he had taken an infant to a nurse. He was examined in the presence of Donna
Vittoria and Donna Bernarda. He was put to the torture on consecutive days; his sufferings were acute; but, true to his
word, he admitted only what it was impossible to deny, and the fiscal could extract nothing from him.

When it came to Donna Vittoria and Donna Bernarda, who had witnessed the tortures inflicted on Cesare, they admitted
all that they had done. All the nuns were asked the name of the author of the crime; the majority replied that they had
heard it said that it was the Bishop. One of the Sister Portresses repeated the offensive words which the Abbess had
used to the Bishop when shewing him out of the church. She added: “When people talk in that tone, it means that they
have long been making love to one another. And indeed Monsignore, who as a rule was remarkable for his excessive
self-assurance, had quite a shamefaced air as he left the church,”

One of the sisters, examined in front of the instruments of torture, replied that the author of the crime must be
the cat, because the Abbess had it constantly in her arms and was always fondling it. Another sister asserted that the
author of the crime must be the wind, because, on days when there was a wind, the Abbess was happy and in a good
humour; she would expose herself to the force of the wind on a belvedere which she had had built on purpose; and, when
anyone came to ask a favour of her in this spot, she never refused it. The baker’s wife, the nurse, the gossips of
Montefiascone, frightened by the tortures which they had seen inflicted on Cesare, told the truth.

The young Bishop was ill or feigning illness at Ronciglione, which gave his brothers, supported by the credit and
secret influence of Signora de’ Campireali, an opportunity of prostrating themselves more than once at the Pope’s feet,
and asking him that the proceedings might be suspended until the Bishop should have recovered his health. Whereupon the
terrible Cardinal Farnese increased the number of the soldiers that were guarding him in his prison. As the Bishop
could not be examined, the commissioners began all their sittings by subjecting the Abbess to a fresh examination. One
day, after her mother had told her to have courage and to deny everything, she admitted all.

“Why did you first of all inculpate Gianbattista Doleri?”

“Out of pity for the Bishop’s cowardice, and, besides, if he succeeds in saving his precious life, he will be able
to provide for my son.”

After this admission, the Abbess was confined in a room in the Convent of Castro, the walls of which, as well as its
vaulting, were eight feet thick; the nuns would never speak of this dungeon without terror, and it went by the name of
the monks’ room; watch was kept there over the Abbess by three women.

The Bishop’s health having slightly improved, three hundred sbirri or soldiers came for him to Ronciglione,
and he was transported to Rome in a litter; he was confined in the prison called Corte Savella. A few days later, the
sisters also were taken to Rome; the Abbess was placed in the Monastery of Santa Marta. Four sisters were inculpated:
Donna Vittoria and Donna Bernarda, the sister through whom messages passed, and the portress who had heard the
offensive words addressed to the Bishop by the Abbess.

The Bishop was examined by the Auditor of the Chamber, one of the chief personages in the judiciary. Torture was
applied once again to the unfortunate Cesare del Bene, who not only admitted nothing, but said things which caused
inconvenience to the public ministry; these earned him a fresh dose of torture. This preliminary punishment was
inflicted similarly upon Donna Vittoria and Donna Bernarda. The Bishop denied everything, with vituperation, but with a
fine stubbornness; he gave an account, in the fullest detail, of all that he had done upon the three evenings which he
was known to have spent with the Abbess.

Finally the Abbess and Bishop were confronted, and, albeit she continued to tell the truth, she was subjected to
torture. As she repeated what she had always said from her first confession, the Bishop, sticking to his part, covered
her with abuse.

After a number of other measures, reasonable enough in principle, but marred by that spirit of cruelty which, after
the reigns of Charles V and Philip II, prevailed too often in the Italian courts, the Bishop was sentenced to undergo
perpetual imprisonment in the Castel Sant’ Angelo; the Abbess to be detained for the term of her life in the Convent of
Santa Marta, where she was. But already Signora de’ Campireali, in the hope of saving her daughter, had set to work to
have a subterranean passage burrowed. This passage started from one of those sewers which are relics of the splendour
of ancient Rome, and was to end in the deep cellar in which were deposited the mortal remains of the nuns of Santa
Marta. This passage, which was barely two feet in width, was walled with planks, to keep back the earth on either side,
and was roofed, as it advanced, with pairs of planks arranged like the sides of a capital A.

The tunnel was being bored about thirty feet below ground. The important thing was to carry it in the right
direction; at every moment, wells and the foundations of old buildings obliged the workmen to turn aside. Another great
difficulty arose as to the disposal of the earth, with which they did not know what to do; it appears that they
sprinkled it during the night over all the streets of Rome. The citizens were astonished to see such a quantity of
earth, fallen, as one might say, from heaven.

However large the sums Signora de’ Campireali might spend in the attempt to save her daughter’s life, her
subterranean passage would doubtless have been discovered, but Pope Gregory XIII happened to die in 1585, and disorder
reigned as soon as the See was vacant.

Elena was far from happy at Santa Marta; one may imagine whether common and distinctly poor nuns shewed zeal in
annoying a very rich Abbess convicted of such a crime. She was eagerly awaiting the outcome of her mother’s enterprise.
But suddenly her heart was caught by strange emotions. Six months had already passed since Fabrizio Colonna, seeing the
uncertain state of Gregory XIII’s health, and having great plans for the interregnum, had sent one of his officers to
Giulio Branciforte, now so widely known in the Spanish armies under the name of Colonel Lizzara. He recalled him to
Italy; Giulio was burning to see his native land once more. He landed under a false name at Pescara, a small port on
the Adriatic below Chieti, in the Abruzzi, and journeyed over the mountains to la Petrella. The Prince’s joy caused
general astonishment. He told Giulio that he had sent for him to make him his successor and to give him the command of
his troops. To which Branciforte replied that, from the military point of view, it was no longer worth while to
continue, as he was easily able to prove; if Spain ever seriously wished to do so, in six months, and at small cost to
herself, she could wipe out all the soldiers of fortune in Italy.

“However,” young Branciforte added, “if you wish it, Prince, I am ready to take the field. You will always find in
me a successor to the gallant Ramicelo, who was killed at the Ciampi.”

Before Giulio’s arrival, the Prince had ordered, as he alone could order, that no one at la Petrella should dare to
speak of Castro or of the Abbess’s trial; the penalty of death, without hope of respite, was held out as a deterrent
from any rash word. In the course of the affectionate greetings with which he welcomed Branciforte, he asked him on no
account to go to Albano without himself, and his method of carrying out the expedition was to occupy the town with a
thousand of his men, and to post an advance guard of twelve hundred on the road to Rome. One may imagine poor Giulio’s
state when the Prince, having sent for old Scotti, who was still alive, to the house in which he had established his
headquarters, made him come up to the room in which he himself was sitting with Branciforte. As soon as the two old
friends had flung themselves into each other’s arms:

“Now, my poor Colonel,” he said to Giulio, “be prepared for the worst.”

Whereupon he snuffed the candle and left the room, turning the key on the friends.

Next day Giulio, who preferred not to leave his room, sent to the Prince to ask leave to return to la Petrella, and
not to see him for some days. But his messenger returned to say that the Prince had disappeared, with all his troops.
During the night, he had heard of the death of Gregory XIII; he had forgotten his friend Giulio and was scouring the
country. There remained with Giulio only some thirty men belonging to Ranuccio’s old company. The reader is aware that
in those days, during a vacancy of the See, the law no longer ran, everyone thought of gratifying his own passions, and
there was no force but brute force; that is why, before the end of the day, Prince Colonna had already hanged more than
fifty of his enemies.

As for Giulio, albeit he had not forty men with him, he made bold to march upon Rome.

All the servants of the Abbess of Castro had remained faithful to her; they were lodged in humble houses near the
Convent of Santa Marta. The death agony of Gregory XIII had lasted for more than a week; Signora de’ Campireali was
eagerly awaiting the troubled days that would follow his death before attacking the final fifty yards of her tunnel. As
it had to pass through the cellars of several inhabited houses, she was greatly afraid lest she might be unable to keep
from public knowledge the completion of her undertaking.

On the second day after Branciforte’s arrival at la Petrella, the three of Giulio’s old bravi, whom Elena
had taken into her service, appeared to have gone mad. Although everyone knew only too well that she was in the
strictest isolation, and guarded by nuns who hated her, Ugone, one of the bravi, came to the gate of the
Convent and made the strangest request that he should be allowed to see his mistress, and without delay. He was refused
admission and turned from the door. In his desperation, the man remained outside, and began to distribute baiocchi
(copper coins) among all the persons employed in the service of the Convent who passed in or out, saying to them these
precise words: “Rejoice tenth me; Signor Giulio Branciforte has arrived, he is alive: tell this to your
friends.”

Ugone’s two companions spent the day in bringing him fresh supplies of baiocchi, which they continued to
distribute day and night, always repeating the same words, until there was not one baiocco left. But the three
bravi, taking turns, continued none the less to keep guard at the gate of the Convent of Santa Marta, still
addressing to all that passed them the same words, followed by an obsequious salute: “Signor Giulio has
arrived,” etc. These worthy fellows’ plan was successful: less than thirty-six hours after the giving of the first
baiocco, poor Elena, down in her cell, in solitary confinement, knew that Giulio was alive; the words
threw her into a sort of frenzy:

“Oh, my mother!” she cried, “what harm you have wrought me!”

A few hours later, the astonishing news was confirmed by little Marietta, who, by making a sacrifice of all her
golden ornaments, obtained leave to accompany the sister who took the prisoner her meals. With tears of joy Elena flung
herself into her arms.

“This is very pleasant,” she said to her, “but I shall not be with you much longer.”

“Indeed no!” said Marietta. “I am sure that before this Conclave is ended, your imprisonment will be changed to an
ordinary banishment.”

“Ah, my dear, to see Giulio again! And to see him, with this guilt on my head!”

In the middle of the third night after this conversation, part of the floor of the church fell in with a loud noise;
the nuns of Santa Marta thought that their convent was going to collapse. Their commotion was extreme, everyone was
calling out that there had been an earthquake. About an hour after the subsidence of the marble pavement of the church,
Signora de“Campireali, preceded by the three bravi in Elena’s service, made her way into the dungeon by the
underground passage.

“Victory, victory, Signora!” cried the bravi.

Elena was in a mortal fear; she thought that Giulio Branciforte was with them. She was quite reassured, and her
features resumed their stern expression when the men told her that they were escorting Signora de’ Campireali, and that
Giulio was still at Albano, which he had just invaded with several thousand troops.

She waited for some moments, and then Signora de’ Campireali appeared; she was walking with great difficulty, on the
arm of her scudiere, who was in full costume, with sword on hip; but his gorgeous coat was all soiled with
earth.

Signora de’ Campireali was left speechless; she stared helplessly at her daughter; she seemed greatly agitated.

“Well, my dear Elena,” she said at length, “fate compels me to confess to you an action which was perhaps natural
enough, after the misfortunes that had befallen our family, but of which I repent, and beg that you will forgive me for
it: Giulio . . . Branciforte . . . is alive . . . ”

“And it is because he is alive that I have no wish to live.”

Signora de’ Campireali did not at first grasp her daughter’s meaning, then she besought her with the most tender
supplications; but she could obtain no answer. Elena had turned to her crucifix and was praying without listening to
her. In vain, for a whole hour, did Signora de’ Campireali make every effort to win from her a word or a look. At
length, her daughter, losing patience, said to her:

“It was beneath the marble of this crucifix that his letters were hidden, in my little room at Albano; it had been
better to let my father stab me! Go, and leave some gold with me.”

As Signora de’ Campireali tried to continue speaking to her daughter, disregarding the signs of alarm shewn by her
scudiere, Elena lost patience.

“Let me, at least, have an hour of freedom; you have poisoned my life, you wish to poison my death as well.”

“We shall still have command of the passage for two or three hours; I venture to hope that you will change your
mind!” exclaimed Signora de’ Campireali, bursting into tears.

And she made her way out by the underground passage.

“Ugone, stay with me,” said Elena to one of her bravi, “and see you are well armed, my lad, for you may
have to defend me. Let me see your dirk, your sword, your dagger.”

The old soldier shewed her these weapons, all in good condition.

“Good; now wait there, outside my cell; I am going to write Giulio a long letter which you will hand to him
yourself; I do not wish it to pass through any hands but yours, having nothing with which to seal it. You may read the
whole of the letter. Put in your pockets all the gold my mother has left there, I need for myself only fifty sequins;
place them on my bed.”

Having said these words, Elena sat down to write.

“I have not the least doubt of you, my dear Giulio; if I take my departure, it is because I should die of grief in
your arms, at the sight of what would have been my happiness, had I not committed a sin. You are not to imagine that I
have ever loved any creature in the world after you; far from it, my heart was filled with the bitterest contempt for
the man whom I admitted to my room. My sin was solely one of distraction, and, if you like, of wantonness. Think that
my spirit, greatly weakened after the futile attempt which I made at la Petrella, where the Prince whom I revered,
because you loved him, received me so cruelly; think, I say, that my spirit, greatly weakened, had been assailed by
twelve years of falsehood. Everything round me was lying and false, and I knew it. I received first of all some thirty
letters from you; imagine the rapture with which, at first, I used to tear them open. But, as I read them, my heart
froze. I examined the writing, I recognised your hand, but not your heart. Think that this first falsehood cankered the
essence of my life, so that I could open a letter in your writing without any pleasure! The detestable announcement of
your death finally killed in me anything that might yet survive from the happy days of our youth. My first intention,
as you can well understand, was to go to see with my eyes and touch with my hands the Mexican shore upon which they
said that the savages had massacred you; had I carried out that idea . . . we should be happy new, for, in
Madrid, whatever the number and craftiness of the spies that a watchful hand might have managed to dispose round about
me, as I myself would have appealed to every heart in which there remained a trace of pity and of goodness, it is
probable that I should have arrived at the truth; for already, my Giulio, your gallant deeds had attracted the
attention of the whole world towards you, and perhaps someone in Madrid knew that you were Branciforte. Would you like
me to tell you what prevented our happiness? First of all, the memory of the atrocious, humiliating reception the
Prince gave me at la Petrella; what a chain of obstacles to surmount between Castro and Mexico! You see, my heart had
already lost its motive power. Then I had an impulse of vanity. I had erected huge buildings in the Convent, in order
to be able to take as my own room the portress’s lodge, in which you took shelter on the night of the assault. One day,
I was looking at the ground which, for my sake, you had watered with your blood; I heard a contemptuous utterance,
raised my head, saw spiteful faces; to avenge myself, I decided to become Abbess. My mother, who knew quite well that
you were alive, made heroic efforts to secure that preposterous nomination. The position was nothing, for me, but a
source of trouble; it completed the debasement of my nature; I took pleasure often in proving my power by the suffering
of others; I committed acts of injustice. I saw myself, at the age of thirty, virtuous according to the world, rich,
respected, and yet completely wretched. Then there appeared that poor man, who was goodness itself, but foolishness
personified. The effect of his foolishness was that I bore with his first suggestions. My heart had been made so
wretched by everything that surrounded me after your departure, that it had no longer the strength to resist the
slightest temptation. Shall I confess to you something really indelicate? Yes, for I remember that everything is
permitted to the dead. When you read these lines, the worms will be devouring this so-called beauty, which should have
been all yours. Well, I must out with this matter which distresses me; I did not see why I should not make trial of the
coarser side of love, like all our Roman ladies; I had a lascivious thought, but I was never able to give myself to
that man without a feeling of horror and disgust which destroyed all the pleasure. I saw you always at my side, in the
garden of our palazzo at Albano, when the Madonna inspired in you that thought, apparently so noble, but one that has,
after my mother, been the bane of our lives. You were not at all threatening, but tender and good as you always were,
you looked at me, then I felt moments of anger with that other man, and went so far as to beat him with all my
strength. This is the whole truth, my dear Giulio: I did not wish to die without telling you it, and I thought also
that perhaps this conversation with you might take away from me the idea of dying. It makes me see all the more clearly
what would have been my joy on greeting you again, had I kept myself worthy of you. I order you to live and to continue
that military career which caused me so much joy when I heard of your success. What would my joy have been, great God,
had I received your letters, especially after the battle of Achenne! Live, and recall often to your mind the memory of
Ranuccio, killed at the Ciampi, and that of Elena, who, not to read a reproach in your eyes, lies dead at Santa
Marta.”

Having written this, Elena went up to the old soldier, whom she found sleeping; she took his dirk from him, without
his noticing the loss, then aroused him.

“I have finished,” she told him; “I am afraid of our enemies’ seizing the passage. Go at once, take my letter which
is on the table, and give it yourself to Giulio, yourself, do you understand? In addition to that, give him
this handkerchief, tell him that I love him no more at this moment than I have always loved him, always, remember!”

Ugone was on his feet but made no move.

“Off with you!”

“Signora, have you really decided? Signor Giulio loves you so!”

“And I too, I love him, take the letter and give it to him yourself.”

“Very well, may God bless you as you deserve!”

Ugone went and speedily returned; he found Elena dead; the dirk was in her heart.

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